Services for football clubs

According to art.21 FIFA Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players, if a Professional is transferred before the expiry of his contract, any club that has contributed to his education and training shall receive a proportion of the compensation paid to his previous club (solidarity contribution).

Statement 1 Each and every club has the right to compensation

In the above mentioned article, the most important principle is one of fairness to those clubs, who spent time, effort and money to train professional players. The FIFA regulation points out that “… the solidarity mechanism was created in order to contribute to the training of young players, rewarding those clubs who were involved in the player’s training and education.”

Furthermore, with the aid of the solidarity mechanism it is not only just compensation that is achieved. It also creates financial stimuli for the further development of football. As a result of the distribution of the solidarity contribution to the football school, which developed a good player, the financial reward can be used for further development and training of other successful players.

Therefore the solidarity mechanism is a very important factor in the organisation of football. This fundamental principal has been repeatedly stated by FIFA representatives.

Statement 2 Ultimately, not every club receives compensation

Many football clubs, even though they are aware of the solidarity mechanism, are not receiving compensation. In our experience, the main reasons for clubs not receiving compensation are as follows: :

The club is not interested in receiving compensation.
This occurs when the sum of compensation is small. Therefore the club considers that it is not worthwhile for them to make a claim.

The club does not have sufficient documentation to prove they train the player.
This occurs when the necessary documents were not retained by the club and the club is unsure of what other methods of verification can be used.

The club does not know what needs to be done in order to receive compensation.
As a rule, in such cases, the club mistakenly turns for help to its national association (federation). However a football association (federation) - is not a law firm and its regulations do not indicate that they have a duty to offer such legal services to their members. As a result, associations very rarely defend their clubs in such disputes between the clubs or achieve positive results.

The club independently attempts to receive compensation, without turning for help to a sports solicitor
The voluntary payment of compensation by the player’s new club is a rare occurrence. Therefore, when negotiations regarding the compensation reach a deadlock, the club, which does not employ a solicitor as a regular member of staff, often loses interest in the matter.
Even if a club has its own legal department, its attention cannot be concentrated only on the compensation calculations. Therefore, many sums of compensation are not being received.

The club turns for help to those, who are not experienced in sports law
Sometimes the managers of a football club think that the compensation payout can be achieved by using the help of a high ranking football friend or negotiations through other mediators. Both of these methods involve direct negotiations with the debtor. As a result, the club has to endlessly remind “the high ranking friend” about the claim. The delay can result in the club losing its right to compensation.

Statement 3 We help to overcome the above mentioned difficulties

As a result of the analysis of our previous experience and the improvement of the mechanisms for the rapid and effective cooperation of all participants in the compensating process, we have created a single system of work for compensation payouts, which is based upon a scientific approach and linked with our specialist knowledge of football. This system includes not only legal work, but also mediation and statistical activity, combined to find the solution to disputes.

By relying on this system, we can very quickly and effectively make sure that our clients do not lose their compensation payouts.

We also try to make our services extremely attractive from a financial point of view. The basic principle of our pricing policy is payment after the result has been achieved. Our client, as a rule, does not pay the cost of document preparation, travelling expenses or hiring of experts. This ensures our maximum focus on successful completion of our client’s claim. Our payment is collected as a percentage of the sum recovered and paid into the Client’s bank account. If we have a sufficient number of clients, we can ensure low fees and our financial stability.

The services we provide are of a complex nature. Their structure can be best described as follows:

1

Development and running of a database of players, who have been previously registered with the client.

The database is able, at any period of time, to show the player’s current registration, his past history and to identify the debtor, who is obliged to pay compensation.

2

Working with the national association to which our client belongs.

Receiving a compensation payout is usually dependent upon obtaining proof that the player was employed by our client. Legal League takes responsibility for obtaining such proof.

Since the system of international passports of a player is far from perfect, Legal League often has to work with national associations in order to create the player’s new passport, which will accurately reflect his career.

3

Negotiations with clubs regarding the voluntary payment of compensation.

As a general rule even debtors, who have been given the necessary paperwork are reluctant to carry out their obligation to pay compensation. Negotiations are more successful where the debtors have had court trials involving clients of Legal League and were subject to sanctions for the delayed payments. However, even in such cases, a detailed knowledge of the internal legislation of the debtor’s country is required (for example: banking legislation). This knowledge reduces the waiting period before the payment to be made to the client’s bank account.

4

Submission and running a case in the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC).

The successful running of a case in DRC is ensured by our knowledge of FIFA internal regulations, DRC dispute procedures and Swiss legislation of substantive and procedural law, which sports organisations usually, have to comply with.

5

Appellate procedures in the Sport Arbitrage Court in Lausanne.

When Legal League and FIFA differ in their opinion, it is possible, with our client’s consent, to appeal to CAS. In some cases Legal League will cover the cost of the office fee, which will be recovered from the losing party.

Sometimes appealing to CAS is justifiable even after winning the case at FIFA, for example, if debtor is bankrupt and expelled from the membership of its national association. This appeal makes it possible to recover the debt using that country’s legal enforcement officer.

Besides legal assistance with compensation calculations, we can, if asked to do so, represent clients in the following cases: